Journalism of Courage
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This is an archive article published on December 8, 1999
Fazal goes down fighting
JAIPUR, DEC 7: It was a dismal second day for Indians in the Bikaji Rajasthan Golden Jubilee ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament here on Tues...
Written by Kadambari Murali
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JAIPUR, DEC 7: It was a dismal second day for Indians in the Bikaji Rajasthan Golden Jubilee ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament here on Tuesday. Wild card Sunil Kumar bowed out to third seed Tuomas Ketola; Rohan Bopanna was no match for top seed Paradorn Srichaphan as was local wild card Jagdish Tanwar against Japanese Takahiro Terachi.
Davis Cupper Syed Fazaluddin played a determined match against last week’s runner-up Jamie Delgado but missed vital chances to lose also finish on the losing side — 4-6, 6-3, 2-6.
Fazal had his chances. In the first set he had seven break points, none of which he converted. In the second, he broke the Briton in the fourth game and capitalised on the break to win the set with a couple of superb backhand passes. But in the decider, he missed a couple of crucial points in the fourth game, in which he was broken. Up 40-15 he first didn’t attempt to reach a volley. On the next point, he misjudged an overhead. The game went to deuce and he was never the same after that.
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In the Srichaphan-Bopanna match, the Indian held on with some good serves in the early part of the match. Once Srichaphan got used to the low bounce of the grass, Bopanna could do nothing. While the good part of the Pune-based Coorgi is that he goes into the match without fear of his opponent, the bad part is that he doesn’t think of going for anything that requires much effort. He was just blown apart by the Thai in the second set.
Srichaphan, who won 7-5, 6-1, said the only reason for his taking time to get through with the first set was because he was unused to the bounce. It is very low. I had a little problem with my first serve, but soon adjusted,” he said.
Tanwar went into the match against Terachi in full stam. He had nothing to lose and quickly surprised the Japanese by winning the first three games. Terachi soon came to grips with the situation and won the next three games. Tanwar then held before Terachi finished the set.
In the second set, the Japanese had Tanwar running all over A nonchalant Terachi won 6-4, 6-3.
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The match wich made one think was Sunil’s match with Ketola. Though he lost 3-6, 1-6 and never looked like he was going to pull off a stunner, Sunil again put on a very competent display against a player who is ranked 166.
RESULTS3-Tuomas Ketola (Finland) bt Sunil Kumar (India) 6-3, 6-1; 4-Jamie Delgado (Great Britain) bt Syed Fazaluddin (India) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) bt Kristian Pless (Denmark) 4-5, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3; 1-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) bt Rohan Bopanna (India) 7-5, 6-1; 2-Mose Navarra (Italy) bt Peter Schuster (Germany) 6-4, 6-2; 6-Takahiro Terachi (Japan) bt Jagdish Tanwar (India) 6-4, 6-3
